Retiring NPA chair Rob Mutimer received praise for his ‘strong and credible’ leadership, particularly during the industry’s greatest crisis, as he stepped down after five years in the role.
Paying tribute at a special dinner in London to mark his retirement, Rattlerow joint managing director Robin Lawson, a long-time member of the NPA’s Pig Industry Group, said Rob gave the industry ‘a strong and credible voice’.
“He represented producers at a time when many were under immense pressure, financially, and emotionally. He helped steer the NPA through a period when the stakes were genuinely high,” Mr Lawson said. “He did it with authority, with patience and with the sort of practical realism that our sector respects.”
NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said Rob had served with ‘distinction and a welcome calm’ during the crisis and thanked him for his service as chair and in the years he served the NPA before that.
“His leadership during that time was exemplary, fronting up in the media engagement and providing stable support for the team.
“We thank Rob for his service, not just for the past five years, but for all his work with the NPA before that. We wish Rob the very best as he returns to life as a full-time farmer!”
Rob, who with his wife, Helen, runs an 800-sow outdoor unit and wholesale butchery business in Norfolk, said he had been ‘unbelievably privileged’ to chair the NPA, which he described as a ‘fabulous organisation to work for’.
He thanked NPA chief executives Zoe Davies and Mrs Wilson and others who had represented the NPA alongside him for their support and paid tribute to the ‘hugely effective and hard-working’ NPA team, before wishing his successor, Jo Churchill, good luck in the role.